About this Website

Welcome to Maid Spin, the personal website of iklone. I write about about otaku culture as well as history, philosophy and mythology.

My interests range from anime & programming to mediaevalism & navigation. Hopefully something on this site will interest you.

I'm a devotee of the late '90s / early '00s era of anime, as well as a steadfast lover of maids. My favourite anime is Mahoromatic. I also love the works of Tomino and old Gainax.

To contact me see my contact page.

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• iklone.org is my website. You are here!
• My Anime List for anime/manga.
• Twitter for microblogging.
• Github for code projects.
• My Letterbox for films.
• My Goodreads for novels.
• My Figure List for figures/model kits.

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Optical Classification

As described last time, eyes play an outsized role in the characterisation of Japanese characters, with eyes forming the foundation on which different emotions of personalities can be portrayed. Just as otaku enjoy the classification of personalities into archetypes (tsundere, boke, etc), eye-forms have also been classified into various categories and subcategories. The prime example of this is that between "tareme" and "tsurime".

タレ目 (tareme) means "drooping eyes" as worn by Alphonse on the right; while ツリ目 (tsurime) means hooked-up eyes and are worn by Edward on the left (also seen by the Hiiragi sisters above). These two classifications stand at each end of a spectrum defined by physiognomy as "canthal tilt", meaning the gradient of the line connecting the canthi (corners) of an eye compared to the horizontal plane between the two eyes. As determiners of personality traits I find them self-evident, but to summarise tareme girls are generally passive and gentle, while tsurime girls are more assertive and sometimes hostile. Pretty much any anime girl can be placed onto the this spectrum (and most anime boys), with most sitting somewhere in the middle, or having designs that switch between the two for different emotions.

A subtype of tsurime are 猫目 (nekome) meaning "feline eyes" which are, as the name suggests, eyes that evoke those of a cat. These are tsurime-type eyes but rounded on the top and bottom so as to be less aggressive than their angular counterparts. Nekome are also often used to emote feline emotions, such as curiosity or anxiety/fear.

Another is ジト目 (jitome) meaning "staring eyes" which are used purely as emotive eyes for characters staring at another, usually either in disgust or distrust, but also as a form of seduction (like the English "bedroom-eyes"). Jitome are a form of tsurime, but are often used by tareme characters too. However, jitome are very similar but different from another form of eye than stands outside of the tare-tsuri spectrum, 半目 (hanme) meaning "half eyes". These are usually permanent eyes for the character, and are symmetrical (without inner epicanthic fold) implying the character naturally has these eyes rather than narrowing them. Hanme characters are sleepy, apathetic or simple-minded.

There are of course characters who never open their eyes at all, Brock from Pokemon being the classic example. These come under the archetype of 糸目 (itome) meaning thread eyes. Itome evoke mystery and possible threat. But as well as there being full itome characters, closed eyes are used in emotions, which can be classified by the inflection of the line used:

• Upturned: As described in the last article, upturned eyes are generally "happy" eyes, but can be further classified into their tareme and tsurime forms:
• にっこり目 (nikkorime) meaning "smiling eyes". These are tareme type eyes showing a pleasant happiness.
• 狐目 (kitsuneme) meaning "fox-eyes". These are the tsurime equivalent slanted upwards. These generally imply a less pleasant, sometimes malicious happiness.
• Flat: Known as 水平目 (suiheime) meaning "horizon eyes". These can mean a lot of things but apathy, sleepiness and general mysteriousness are common.
• 簾目 (sudareme) meaning "blind eyes". Being a subset of suiheime, they consist of multiple straight, horizontal lines on top of one another forming a fuzzy rectangular block. These are used when a character is relaxing or in bliss.
• Downturned: 閉じ目 (tojime) meaning "closed eyes". These are pretty self explanatory: they're how one draws eyes to show they actually are closed, although not necessarily asleep.
• Inward-turned: かざり目 (kazarime) meaning "decorative eyes". Unlike the other forms, kazarime are angled inwards with a sharp angle at the intersection. These are ubiquitous in manga/anime and are used whenever the character is straining their eyes closed. On their own they imply extreme happiness, but in other contexts can portray a huge range of strong emotions like fear, sadness, anger or surprise. XD
• Vertical: コンセント目 (konsentome) meaning "plug-socket eyes". Named after their similarity to Japanese Type-A plug sockets, these eyes are simple vertical lines and in turn represent mental simplicity. They're often seen used when characters don't understand something or aren't really thinking.

Another way to classify eyes is through the placement of the pupil with the whites of the eye. Usually you can see the whites on either side of the iris, left and right. However if looking up or down the whites will be visible below or above the iris as well, and if wide-eyed the whites may be visible around the whole eye. Thus there are Japanese terms for the number of directions the whites are showing:

1. 一白眼 (ippakugan): Only really seen when a character is looking left or right, never as a base eye archetype. Although a form of ichihakugan is のの目 (nonome) for when the eyes are depicted as the Japanese character の. The full form of nonome is へのへのもへじ (henohenomoheji) which lists the characters that can be used to draw out an entire face, traditionally used on dolls, scarecrows and teruteru-bouzu.
2. 二白眼 (nihakugan): This is the standard number of whites.
3. 三白眼 (sanpakugan): Seen when a character is looking up or down. Sanpakugan usually refers only to eyes where the whites are visible below the iris, and can be used to show determination or delinquency. If the whites are instead visible above the iris these are referred to as 蛇眼 (jagan) meaning "snake eyes" and look very menacing.
4. 四白眼 (shihakugan): Seen either if the character has very wide-open eyes, or if the iris is particularly small. These build upon the symbolism of sanpakugan, and often signify criminality or anger.

Finally I'll go through a few more miscellaneous eye-types.

The twins ぐるぐる目 (gurugurume) and ぐりぐり目 (gurigurime) mean "spiralling eyes" and "rolling eyes" respectively. While similar, gurugurume imply the character is dizzy while gurigurime imply the character is just confused.

One actually seemingly taken from Western comics is the バツ目 (batsume) meaning "punished eyes". These are when the eyes are shown as Xs, and mean the character is either literally or metaphorically dead, or that they have sustained injury.

点目 (tenme) and 丸目 (marume) are simple, circular eyes with tenme meaning "dot eyes" and marume meaning "circle eyes". The only difference is size, with marume being larger and often with white inside. These, like konsentome, show simplicity, but are also used for surprise or realisation.

I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that are used commonly as tags on Pixiv (which is how I found them). The study of physiognomy has been all-but outlawed in the West, and its use in cartoons is also waning, so studying the Japanese understanding of the subject is fascinating and codifies things that we understand but have never been taught in the West. But just as gravity existed before Newton, the laws of physiognomy are baked into the human psyche and can't be ignored.

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